VATEEIA MALABARIOA. (Nat. order Diplerocarpese.) 

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VATERIA. Linn. Benlh. and Hook. Gen. PI. p- 193.— GEN. CHAE. Calyx with a very ahort tube adnate to the torus, divisions sub-equal 

 imbricate, when in fruit reflexed and scarcely increasing in size, stamens numerous, in many series, anthers linear or oblong, ending in a long single or 

 double beak, ovary 3 celled, cells 2 ovuled, style subulate, stigma small, capsule ovoid or globose, thick coriaceous or fleshy, seated on the reflexed calyx 

 1 seeded indehiscent or 3 valved ; seed thick, cotyledons thick unequal, radicle superior. 



Trees, yielding resin, glabrous or furfuraceous, stipules small deciduous or inconspicuous, leaves entire coriaceous, flowers white in terminal 

 panicles. Eentham and Hooker unite Mr. Thwaites' Ceylon genus Stemonoporus with Vateria ; it has 15 anthers in 2 series, and if united with Vateria, 

 Mouoporandra, with 5 anthers in 1 series, should also be included. De Candolle includes Stemonoporus under Vatica, which has an enlarged calyx when 

 infrui, 



VATERIA MaLABARICA. (Bl.) A very large tree, bark whitish, young shoots and all tender parts except the 

 leaves covered with fine stellate pubescence, leaves alternate petioled oblong entire, slightly cordate at the base, shortly pointed or obtuse 

 at the apex, coriaceous and smooth 4-8 inches long, by 2-4 broad, petioles 1 inch long, stipules Oblong, flowers rather remote on large 

 terminal panicles, bractes ovate pointed, filaments .40-50 very short, anthers not auricled at the base, terminating in a single long 

 bristle at the apex, style a little longer than the stamens, stigma acute, capsule oblong obtuse coriaceous fleshy, 2-2 J inches long by 1| 

 broad, seed solitary. Bl. Mus. Bot. ii. p. 29. Vateria Tndica, Roxb. Fl. hid. ii. 602. (not Linn.) Chloroxylon Dupada, Buchanan 

 Journal in Mysore, &c, ii. 476. Paenoe, liheed. Hort. Mai. iv. 33. 15. 



This tree has often been confov.-nded with the Ceylon Vateria Indica, though it tuas well described by Roxburgh ; it differs in its leav-es 

 and fruit being very much smaller, a.nd in the former being obtuse or scarcely acute, never acuminate, and in its anthers terminating in a single 

 instead of in a double bristle and in not being auricled at the base. 



This is one of the handsomest trees in the Madras Presidency ; it is common in all the western forests from the plains up to 

 3000 — 4000 feet elevation, and is extensively planted as an avenue tree, particularly near the coast in South Canara, Malabar and 

 Travancore; the avenue of it at Ka.rkul, in S. Canara, is a beautiful sigrht. It is called in English the Piney Varnish tree, the copal 

 tree, and the white dammer tree, in Telugn Dupada, in Tamil Vellay Kungilium, and in Canarese Paini. It yields the piney gum resin 

 which exudes copiously from wounds in the trunk, and is an excellent varnish resembling copal, and of a pale green color, and is used 

 for carriages and furniture ; the wood is not much esteemed, but is used for coffins and masts of native vessels, and trunks of the tree 

 are hollowed out to make canoes for ths western coast rivers ; the bark is used to keep toddy from, fermenting. The tree flowers in 

 January. Mr. Broughton the Government Quinologist has furniskedjne with the following report on the resin. 



Resin or Vateria. Indica, White dammer or piney resin. — This beautiful substance has long been known, and its properties and local 

 uses have been repeatedly described. It is also not unknown in England, and I apprehenl that its cost (arid perhaps also ignorance of its peculiar 

 properties) has prevented it becoming an article of more extended commerce. It should be reimried that the " Eist Indian dammer" which is 

 well known among varnish makers, though frequently confounied with this, is the p'cduct of a very different tree, and is not produced in this 

 Presidency. The finest specimens of piney resin are obtained by making incisions in the tree, and are in pale green translucent pieces of consider- 

 able size. The resin that exudes naturally, usually contains much impurity. In most of its properties it resembles copal, but it possesses quali- 

 ties which give it some advantages over the latter. Like copal it is but slightly soluble in alcohol, but as Benelius pointed out in the case of copals, 

 it can be brought into sohition by the addition of camphor to the spirit. It is easily soluble in chloroform, and thus might find a small application 

 as a substitute for amber in photographer s varnish ; it differs most advantageously from copal by being at once soluble in turpentine, and drying also 

 'without the necessity of the preliminary destructive fusion required by that resin, a process which tends greatly to impair the color of the varnish. 

 The solution of the piney resin in turpentine is turbid and milky, but by the addition of powdered charcoal, and subsequently filtering, it yields a 

 solution transparent and colorless as water, and yields a varnish which dyes with a purity and whiteness not to be surpassed. The solution in 

 turpentine readily mixes vjiih the drying oils. It is on these properties of the resin that its chance of becoming an article of trade loill depend. In 

 price it cannot compete viith copal when supply to the European marlcet is regular and abundant. The present price of the best copal in the English 

 market is but £2-10-0 per cent ; piney resin yields en destructive distillation S2per cent, of an oil of agreeable odour, but not differing essentially 

 from that obtained from much cheaper resins. 



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